[Elecraft] Multiple PC sound cards...

[Martin AC6RM]

AFAIK you can't just drop em in to the system together; you'll need to at
least eliminate IRQ and DMA channel conflicts:

If they're ISA bus and if the soundcards are of the vintage where you can
set up the IRQ and the DMA channel using jumpers, make sure they're set
differently.  If the soundcard is of the vintage where that stuff gets set
using a firmware update program, then you'd put one card in the system,
program it, pull it out, put in the other one and then program the other
one.  Just make sure that they're not using the same IRQ or DMA channel. 
If they're PCI bus and you can't program the IRQ/DMA directly, you'll need
help from someone else.

Once you handle the above conflict issues, you'll then need to ADDRESS the
second card in your application, I have no idea how you'll do this (such
that you can differentiate and select between the two sound cards).  My
gut feeling is that it won't work, but we're experimenters by nature.  It
seems like a lot more hassle than just splitting the audio or putting in
an audio switch.  But then again, you could be on to the next hot computer
mod.

Let us know how it goes.

73, Martin K2#3021


> Hi Everyone-
>
> This is a bit off the usual reflector topics, but I hope someone can
> offer some comments.
>
> Has anyone had any experience installing a second sound card in his/her
> PC to enable multiple SSB rigs to operate (not simultaneously) in modes,
> such as RTTY, BPSK, MFSK, etc. WITHOUT having to swap audio cables
> to/from the PC sound card?
>
> My K2 and Rigblaster I/F run very well in scrolling modes with the
> single sound card I have, but I'd also like to put another QRP rig (a
> PSK 20) on the air occasionally.  I have a spare serial port available,
> and the PSK 20 has its own built-in audio interface, so all I need is
> sound-card access to connect the PSK 20.
>
> An alternative would be to build an external switch to do the audio
> changeover externally.  But it occurred to me that it might be possible
> to simply add a second (already spare in my junk box) sound card to the
> PC, and do whatever PC switching is necessary to tell it which card to
> use for which rig is in use.
>
> I've been told that the addition of a second sound card might not leave
> the PC too happy, and I'm curious to know if any of you have any
> thoughts to offer about that.
>
> Feel free to reply offline if you like.
>
> Tnx es 73...
>
> Steve Banks
> K0PQ
> K2 S/N 1599
>
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